The former L.A. County Undersheriff will go on the record against former Sheriff Lee Baca. Paul Tanaka served the department for thirty-one years, rising from deputy to 2nd in command, from 2011-2013. Now facing possible jail time, for his role in a botched FBI investigation of the county jail, documents filed by Tanaka’s attorney, reveal he will shed much light on the Sheriff’s directives to his subordinates.[adsenseyu2]
What should the public expect to learn?
Perhaps light will be shed on the role of the LA County Board of Supervisor’s possibly not providing enough funding to the department to address mental health issues in the jails.
Perhaps we will learn more about the largest gang take down in United States history, in 2009, and why neither Sheriff Baca nor his then undersheriff addressed the public, then Assistant Sheriff Paul Tanaka did. The case was based on how members of the gang were committing crimes against people of color and LA County Sheriff’s stopped it.
Related article: 88 arrested, 147 charged in massive operation against Hawaiian Gardens gang
Perhaps the family of Mitrice Richardson will hear about the department failing to protect their daughter and not doing a thorough investigation of her 2010 death. Sheriff Baca didn’t notify the family privately of her remains being found, he let them find out from the media. When Baca was asked questions by the media, he stormed out of the press conference.
Related article: Mitrice Richardson found DEAD Updated with Videos
Perhaps the public will finally learn the truth about that Viking tattoo. LA Times describes it as the moniker of an unsanctioned clique, which was a decades long problem in the department. Dating back to the days prior to Paul’s being hired.
Related article: The history of the Viking tattoo
Perhaps the public will finally hear that Sheriff Baca was not handling the department in a manner that was suitable for taxpayers. Giving preferential treatment to the likes of Mel Gibson and Paris Hilton, while treating Mitrice Richardson no better than a stray dog.
Paul Tanaka, was and still is, the best candidate for the position of serving as the Sheriff of the nations largest law enforcement agency.
2 Urban Girls believes the former Sheriff and his number two, didn’t always see eye to eye, which resulted in clashes over how cases were historically handled. And who better to know the failures of the Sheriff, than the person serving as his right hand?
This led to Tanaka’s unsuccessful run for Sheriff last year. Disgust with how justice was not being served under Baca. When 2UG solicited public questions, during his campaign, he was asked a very poignant one.
“Why did you turn on Sheriff Baca?” ~ Joseph Mailander, Los Feliz
I did not “turn” on Baca. I respect and appreciate his many years of service. He did a good job in leading the organization in his initial years in office. However, as time went on, I made a conscious decision that the Sheriff’s Department had lost focus on our primary mission of making communities safer and that we needed a change at the helm.
2 Urban Girls and the public look forward to the day that Sheriff Baca will have to face the music and answer questions to the aforementioned and many more that will surely be revealed when Tanaka’s case goes to trial this November.
It is critical to note that since Paul Tanaka took a leave, as mayor of the City of Gardena, there has been a noticeable uptick in crimes committed in the small working class city.
**this article was neither commissioned nor solicited by any paying entity and/or individual**
5 Comments
And the uptick may, possibly be related to rumors that the Sherriff’s Department always wanted to make Gardena another of it’s contract cities, and if crime increases, and Mayor Tanaka isn’t at the helm, they manipulate their way into getting voters to approve it, down the line. They tried before and Gardena’s citizens voted to keep their own police department. Compton lost theirs due to political issues and crime and violent crimes spiked once we lost most of our seasoned and experienced street gang specialists. Go to Comptonpolicegangs dot com, for part of the real story behind the disbanding of that city’s LEO’s and it will become a bit more clear. Sure Compton officers, like most, had their failings, but the way it was done is still filled with controversy and the back dealings of the former gangster/mayor Omar Bradley, who will resent the intimation that he was close to record producer, “Shug” Knight, who’s still behind bars for the incident we’ve read about recently. So now the Sheriff’s want Gardena and with Mayor Tanaka out of the picture, we’ll see how long before it comes to the voters there, once again. There’s another story on that issue of long standing. And so it goes, again and again. McDonald may have not been the solution this time, and it’s been pretty quiet lately about his taking over the troubled agency, not a peep. Guess he works quietly, but the rank and file, those deputies putting their life on the line daily, will eventually tell us how he’s doing, since the Fed’s investigation put pressure for change in the department. I hope I’m off my rocker on all of this. But something’s not right in the scheme of things. People forget details…important details, no less, over time, it seems. More money for the county coffers since Gardena has a budget surplus and the county wants their share of the pie. Money…and more of it. Politics…Meh!
I have to disagree with your statement about crime increasing when LASD came to Compton. Prior to LASD, Compton was known as one of the most dangerous cities in America because of the number of homicides. As soon as LASD took over this homicide rate started to decline and has continued to decline.
Having know both of these men, I really feel that Tanaka was a pawn on Baca’s board. The ‘boss’ is always responsible for the actions of his employees.
Ask Paul Tanaka if he still has the Vikings’ tattoo from when was part of the Lynwood LA Sheriff’s substation. TK
Yes, he does.
https://2urbangirls.com/history-of-paul-tanakas-tattoo/